The current incarnation of Paramount Television is the television production division of Paramount Pictures (a unit of Viacom). Its original version is also the second incarnation of the television production company now known as CBS Television Studios (a unit of CBS Corporation).

History

Pre-2006 (original company)

Paramount Pictures had some early involvement in television production during the Golden Age of Television with its ownership of fledgling network the Paramount Television Network (which served as a vehicle for the studio's in-house TV productions, which were distributed to other American stations and some Canadian stations), as well as having an ownership stake in the DuMont Television Network. Also, Paramount was the original owner of Los Angeles station KTLA and also owned Telemount Productions, which produced a few network and syndicated shows in the 1950s.

A later attempt by Paramount to launch a TV production unit, Paramount Pictures Television, produced pilots for proposed series which never made it past the pilot stage, including a 1959 TV movie titled Destination Space (which it co-produced with CBS, which also aired that movie). In the mid-1960s, Paramount joined forces with Talent Associates to produce most of the first season of the spy parody sitcom Get Smart (credited on that show as Talent Associates-Paramount), but by 1966, Paramount was nearing bankruptcy and had largely distanced itself from television when it was purchased that year by Gulf+Western. In 1967, Gulf+Western acquired Desilu Productions and its syndication unit, Desilu Sales, from Lucille Ball and made it the TV division of Paramount while keeping the Desilu name for several months until December 29 that year, when Desilu was dissolved and then reincorporated as Paramount Television (PTV) on January 1, 1968 (with Desilu Sales reincorporated as Paramount Television Sales at the same time), marking Paramount's first genuine foray into television production under Gulf+Western ownership.

Following the reincorporation, PTV took over production of the shows previously made by Desilu, including The Lucy Show, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible and Mannix. The first show to be produced by PTV from its debut, Here's Lucy (the third long-running sitcom to star Lucille Ball), debuted on September 23, 1968 and was co-produced with Ball's new production company, Lucille Ball Productions, but PTV co-produced only the first season before it sold its stake in the show to Ball after that season. In the fall of 1969, PTV launched two new shows, the family sitcom The Brady Bunch and the romantic comedy anthology Love, American Style.

In 1978, a Star Trek sequel series titled Star Trek: Phase II was announced by PTV as the flagship series of a proposed fourth television network owned by Paramount, the Paramount Television Service, but the plans for that network were ultimately scrapped by the studio's board prior to its planned launch at the start of the 1978-79 TV season and Star Trek: Phase II was revamped into a feature film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which debuted in theatres on December 7, 1979. PTV later contributed some programs to syndication service Operation Prime Time, including music/dance show Solid Gold. In 1981, the PTV-produced entertainment news program Entertainment Tonight debuted on weeknights in first-run syndication. In 1987, the Star Trek franchise returned to television when Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted in syndication and quickly became a success for PTV, which then focused on other shows for first-run syndication like Friday the 13th: The Series (horror), War of the Worlds (sci-fi, based on the 1953 Paramount movie of the same name), The Arsenio Hall Show (late-night talk) and Hard Copy (tabloid news).

1995 logo of Paramount Television

In 1989, PTV parent company Gulf+Western was reincorporated as Paramount Communications after the company sold off its non-entertainment assets to focus on its core entertainment and media units. Another syndicated Star Trek series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, debuted at mid-season in January 1993. Paramount Communications (including PTV) was purchased by Viacom in 1994, and Viacom's syndication unit, Viacom Enterprises, was folded into Paramount Domestic Television beginning in 1995, while its TV production unit, Viacom Productions, became a division of PTV that year. Also in 1995, Paramount finally realized its plans for its own TV network, the United Paramount Network (UPN, co-owned with Chris-Craft Industries), which PTV began producing shows for upon its launch that January. The first show to air on UPN was Star Trek: Voyager, the first network-based Star Trek series to air since The Original Series' run on NBC. Other shows produced by PTV which aired on UPN included Star Trek: Enterprise, The Sentinel, Seven Days, One on One, Moesha and Girlfriends.

Viacom acquired former parent company CBS in 2000, which led to PTV producing more shows to air on CBS (some of which, including JAG, Becker and Nash Bridges, were already in production at the time). Four of the new PTV shows, NCIS (a JAG spinoff), Numb3rs, Criminal Minds and Ghost Whisperer, became hits for CBS following the Viacom acquisition. In 2004, Viacom Productions was folded into PTV, which assumed production of the former VP shows thereafter. On January 3, 2006, Viacom split into two separate companies, with the existing Viacom reincorporating as CBS Corporation while the current Viacom was spun off from it. CBS retained PTV in the split and merged it with CBS Productions, along with their respective syndication units, to form CBS Paramount Television (CPTV) on January 16, 2006, with the shows formerly produced under the PTV banner transitioning to CPTV beginning on May 28, 2006. Criminal Minds and NCIS are the last two network shows originally produced by PTV which are still in production as of 2017.

2013-present (revived company)

On March 4, 2013, the current Viacom announced the resurrection of PTV as the TV production unit of Paramount Pictures (which Viacom had retained following its spinoff from CBS Corporation). The first series announced to be produced by the new PTV was an adaptation of the 1984 police action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop (which was to have been co-produced with Sony Pictures Television), but it did not get past the development stage. Amy Powell was later announced as the new president of PTV on July 22, 2013.

Paramount Domestic Television

Paramount Domestic Television (PDT) was formed in 1982 as Paramount Domestic Television and Video Programming. It served as the successor-in-interest to previous distribution companies dating back to Desilu Sales, which was first formed in 1962 as the syndication arm of Desilu. Shortly after its acquisition by Gulf+Western in 1967, Desilu Sales merged with Paramount's original TV syndication unit, Paramount Television Enterprises, to form Paramount Television Sales, later renamed Paramount Television Domestic Distribution prior to the 1982 reorganization.

In 2004, PDT's international division, Paramount International Television, merged with CBS Broadcast International to form CBS Paramount International Television (CPIT). When CBS merged PTV (and PDT) with CBS Productions (and its CBS Enterprises distribution unit) to form CBS Paramount Television in 2006, the TV production unit became CBS Paramount Network Television (CPNT) while the syndication unit was renamed CBS Paramount Domestic Television (CPDT), though both units identified on-screen simply as CBS Paramount Television. On September 26, 2006, CBS announced that it would merge CPDT with King World to form CBS Television Distribution (CTD), whose on-screen logo debuted in syndication on August 20, 2007.

Production codes

The format for weekly produced shows is SSSSS-EEE, where S is a five digit show number and E is a three digit episode number. Daily produced shows is SE, where S is the variable letter show identifier and E is a variable sequential digit episode count. Only the episode portion is used on internal marketing material and feed slates.